South Korea's Daewoo International Corporation will explore and produce oil and natural gas in one more block in the offshore area of Myanmar's western Rakhine state, an official newspaper reported Tuesday.

According to a production sharing contract signed between Daewoo and the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) under the Ministry of Energy at the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw Sunday, the undertaking will be carried out at Block AD-7 in the offshore area, said the New Light of Myanmar.

It is Daewoo's another involvement in Myanmar's oil and gas exploration and production after the company, which leads a consortium also comprising South Korea Gas Corporation, ONGC Videsh Ltd of India and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), found gas deposits at Block A-1 (Shwe field and the Shwephyu field) and Block A-3 (Mya field) off the same Rakhine coast in January 2004 and April 2005 respectively.

The consortium's stake is shared mainly by Daewoo with 60 percent, South Korea Gas Corporation 10 percent, ONGC Videsh Ltd of India 20 percent and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) 10 percent.

The Shwe field holds a gas reserve of 4 to 6 trillion cubic- feet (TCF) or 113.2 to 170 billion cubic-meters (BCM), while the Shwephyu 5 TCF and the Mya 2 TCF with a combined proven reserve of 5.7 to 10 TCF being estimated by experts.

In December last year, the GAIL of India and the Silver Wave Energy of Singapore agreed with the MOGE on contract to conduct oil and gas exploration and production at Block A-7 also in the Rakhine offshore area.

In mid-January this year, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) International Ltd of China and the MOGE also initiated a contract to explore oil and gas at three deep-sea blocks AD-1, AD-6 and AD-8 off the same Rakhine coast which cover a total area of about 10,000 square-kilometers.

In late January, a British-Virgin-Island-based oil company -- the MRPL E and P Pte Ltd, also reached a production sharing contract with MOGE to explore and produce oil and gas at Block A-6 which was said to cover an area of about 9,830 square-kilometers.

Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources in the offshore areas. With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore ones, Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012 TCF or 510 BCM out of 89.722 TCF or 2.54 trillion cubic-meters (TCM)'s estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas, experts said.

The country is also estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve, official statistics indicate.

The Myanmar figures also show that in the fiscal year 2005-06 which ended in March, the country produced 7.962 million barrels of crude oil and 11.45 BCM of gas. Gas export during the year reached 9.138 BCM, earning over 1 billion US dollars.

Available statistics reveal that foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and gas sector had reached 2.635 billion dollars as of March, the end of the fiscal year 2005-06, since the country opened to foreign investment in late 1988.

Source: Xinhua